In the sermon titled 'Making Ready a People Prepared for the Lord', Jason Dohm discusses the role and mission of John the Baptist as portrayed in Matthew 3. The speaker highlights John the Baptist's unique lifestyle and prophetic fulfillment as a forerunner to Jesus Christ. Emphasizing repentance as central to John's message, Dohm explains that repentance involves a change of mind leading to a change in life, and underscores the need for true repentance evidenced by fruit. The sermon explores the concept of the 'Kingdom of Heaven', emphasizing its internal and spiritual nature versus an earthly kingdom, and illustrates the distinction between John's baptism with water and Jesus' baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire. Dohm also addresses the danger of hypocrisy, particularly among the Pharisees and Sadducees, and stresses that true faith cannot rely on heritage but must be personal. The sermon concludes by urging listeners to examine their own repentance and relationship with God, highlighting the vast chasm between humanity and a holy God, bridged only by Jesus' work.

Matthew chapter 3. In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying, the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locust and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the regions around the Jordan went out to him and they were baptized by him in the Jordan confessing their sins But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism He said to them Brutus vipers who warned you Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.

Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance. And do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the axe is laid to the root of the tree. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire. I indeed baptize you with the water unto repentance.

But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." So it was almost exactly a year ago to the day when these rumblings about church planning started happening. And I think a year ago today, maybe Janet was still in the denial phase, but a year later we've all together given birth to a bouncing baby local church. I guess that's about the gestation period for it.

Well welcome back to Matthew. The Gospel written by a Jew, written to Jews, written about the King of the Jews. We've seen Matthew just pounding away relentlessly, working to prove to us that God has made promises that He would send a Redeemer and that this Jesus of Nazareth is that Redeemer. And Matthew just will not turn loose of us. But he keeps hammering away and bringing these Old Testament prophecies to bear so that we'll see that Jesus really is the Christ.

That He's the one that God sent to save a people from their sins. Last week in the text, what a fascinating text that was. We have these men, we don't really know where they came from. They were wise men. And They were hundreds of miles away.

They had few, if any, of the means of grace that were available to the people of God and especially the leaders of the people of God. And yet, they're doing something with what God has given them. And they're coming and they're falling down before Jesus Christ to worship Him. Meanwhile, six miles away, we have the scribes and the Pharisees. They have been soaked in the Old Testament, soaked in the Word of God.

They are dripping with the means of grace and yet they'll do nothing. They won't go the six miles to see whether the Savior of the world really has been born in their backyard. And we see that the prophecy of Genesis 3.15, and I will put enmity between you and the woman. This is God speaking to the serpent. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.

He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. And so this is a prophecy that dates all the way back to the fall in the garden, and it's starting to be fulfilled. Even though Jesus is only a baby, the war is already on. Satan is trying to stamp out the seed of the woman, and yet the seed of the woman is proving to be very evasive because God always knows in advance and he can send warning and he's always a thousand steps ahead and you can never thwart his plans. And we see that Almighty God picks birth places and he governs the heavens, he creates whatever, stars or phenomena to point out to the people that he wants to know the location of the birth of Jesus.

And so the universe is ruled by our God and he's an almighty God and he's got a plan and he knows the end from the beginning and he's taking us all there. Whether you want to or not, God is taking us all to the end point that he has designed and we should want it. It's a Wonderful input. Next week we're actually taking a detour. We've been going at a pretty good clip and we've been almost skimming over these Old Testament prophecies that Matthew is using.

So next week what we're going to do is take the Old Testament prophecy from this passage that we're in today, Isaiah 40, that talks about John the Baptist. And we're just going to take a week to look at How does our author Matthew use the Old Testament? So far since we've been going at a good clip and not really going back to look at these texts in their context, it almost looks like Matthew is just using them as a proof text. He's picking something that looks to be loosely associated with what might be happening in the present day and he's using this as a kind of a one verse proof text. And nothing could be further from the truth.

Actually, Matthew is writing to Jews. He's writing to people who know the Old Testament so much better than we know the Old Testament. And so when he quotes Isaiah 43 like he'll do today, this would be so much more meaningful to the Jews because they know Isaiah 40. They're so much more familiar with the context. So we're just going to take a week to go and look and see exactly how Matthew is using these things.

What we're going to find is, it's not that he's using one verse proof text, but that these texts have a wider context that tell us a lot about what's being said for the Messiah. So I think it will be a real blessing. Because that teaches us how we ought to use the Old Testament as well, and how we're at liberty or not at liberty to use certain passages of Scripture. So this would be a blessing. Let's pray.

Father God here we are this week as every week we have a text of Scripture before us. We are in great need that you would come and unfold it before us so that the fullness of the meaning that you intended would be understood, but not just understood, but also loved and obeyed by us. So we pray for this, God, that you would help us. That among us, that it would be true that you would be true and every man a liar though. Everyone in the world would say one thing.

If you would say the opposite thing, we would say you are true and Everyone else is a liar. I pray, God, that You would help us to come to the text in this way, bowing ourselves down knowing that this is Your Word, and desiring to be at Your feet to learn from You. So that we could learn to love the things that you love and to hate the things that you hate and to be conformed into the image of Christ. We pray that you would be among us in a mighty way to do this in Jesus' name. So the text this week, we're going to just be 1-12 of chapter 3.

And I'm just going to essentially break this into three sections and answer three questions. The first question is, who was John the Baptist? And just talk about who he was in terms of Scripture and what he was like. Secondly, what was his mission? God gave him a very specific mission and we want to look at that in detail.

There is such a richly established biblical teaching on exactly what the mission was. But you have to pull from a couple of places to get there. So we're going to pull from those places and see exactly what God was doing and had always intended to do through John the Baptist. So one, who was John the Baptist? Two, what was his mission?

And three, what was his message? Seven out of the twelve verses that we're covering today are in quotation marks. And so this is about the message of John the Baptist. So we'll spend the balance of our time looking at exactly what he said and what it means. So number one, who was John the Baptist?

In the book of Matthew, John the Baptist just kind of drops out of the sky. There's no mention of him prior to now, and then we just see in v. 1, in those days John the Baptist came preaching. And so we have no context for it. But there's a lot more context in the other Gospels.

So when you go and look at what Mark says, when you go and look at what Luke says, when you go and look at what John says, and then you weave these together, what you see is there's a really full-orbed picture. It's a beautiful picture of who John is. So we'll be pulling from all those different places. And just as Jesus was a fulfillment of promises that God made in the Old Testament, so far we're just in chapter 3. We're just starting chapter 3.

And so far We've already seen that there are five different fulfillments of prophecy that Jesus is. And in a similar way, John the Baptist was a promise that God made. God had made a promise to his people that in preparation for the Savior of the world coming onto the scene, a forerunner would be sent. And he made this prophecy in a number of different places. And John is a fulfillment of those prophecies.

So contrary to what it might look in Matthew, that he dropped out of the sky, just kind of out of nowhere with no introduction. Nothing could be further from the truth. John was a fulfillment of prophecy in much the same way that Jesus was. And we see this in verse 3 in which Isaiah 43 is quoted, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. So God says He's going to send a voice in the wilderness.

And then In Luke's account, Luke actually adds on the following verse from Isaiah. So when you add on the following verse, it says this, which Luke does, Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth." And this just fills out what is said in verse 3 about making his paths straight. To make his paths straight means there's some crookedness in those paths and the crookedness needs to be addressed. There are low places that need to be brought up.

There are high places that need to be brought down. There are obstacles that need to be dealt with in order to prepare for the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Luke also at the very end tackles on Isaiah 52-10 which says, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. And so something has to happen for all flesh to see the salvation of God. We're not made ready for that.

The natural man is not ready to see the salvation of God, so something has to happen. To straighten out the crooked, to raise up the low, to bring down the high so that we're made ready. So the obstacles have been dealt with and we've been prepared to be a people for the Lord. And John actually understands this of himself. It's not that the Gospel writers saw this after Jesus came and explained it to them and imposed it backwards.

But John, actually in John 1-23, John 1-23 says this. John said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. So John wasn't oblivious to who he was. What a holy confidence This must be to say, I'm that.

I am the person who was prophesied of there, but God had made it plain to John that this is who he was. He knew exactly who he was. He knew that he was a fulfillment of a promise. Mark also adds to this Malachi 3.1. So if we went to the Gospel account of Mark, we would find where Isaiah 43 is quoted as it is in this text, an addition to Malachi 3.1 which says, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.

So it says much the same thing, but he's drawing from another prophet who is also speaking about this One who will go before the face of the Lord Jesus to prepare His way for Him. So, John the Baptist is the fulfillment of the promises of God. We also learn a number of things from Luke. Like we've done the last couple of weeks, you need to have one finger in the text here in Matthew and you need to put another finger over in Luke 1 and 3 because we are going to spend time in Luke 1 and 3. So here is what we learn from the Gospel of Luke.

In chapter 1 verses 5 we learn that his father is Zacharias and that his mother is Elizabeth and that they are both from the tribe of Aaron and they are both faithful people. Truly faithful people. Full of faith. They believe God. They are in anticipation.

And God uses them in a mighty way. In chapter 1 verse 13, we see that the angel Gabriel has come to what will be John's father, Zacharias, and he instructs that his name be John. So like we've learned about Jesus, that his parents didn't just make up a name for him because they liked the name. They were specifically instructed to say his name was Jesus because it means Savior and He's going to save a people from their sins. John is the same way.

Gabriel comes and says, there's going to be a baby and you're going to name him John. And John means Jehovah is a gracious giver. Jehovah is a gracious giver. And so this is hilarious. When we get into this account, we're going to see this man who leads this austere life.

He's wearing camel hair. He's eating bugs. And his name means Jehovah is a gracious giver. And this is one of the paradoxes of the Gospel. But it's also somewhat humorous.

In Luke 1, verse 15, it's said that John the Baptist will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. And then Later in the same chapter, when Mary comes in, John, there he is, full of the Holy Spirit in his mother's womb, and he leaps. He recognizes that he has come into the presence of the Messiah, who he is the forerunner of, and he leaps in his mother's womb. And then in Luke chapter 3, it fast forwards to right before he starts preaching. So this is Luke chapter 3 verses 2 and 3.

While Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." So a lot like Jesus, we have these spectacular things, angels coming on the scene, a baby leaping in the womb, and then it goes dormant for 27 years or 30 years, something like that. And we don't have anything, We don't know what happened during those years except for John was making ready. He was spending his time in the wilderness to a large extent. And then the Word of God came to him and activated him.

Right at the right time, Right when Jesus was ready to come on the scene, then the forerunner is sent out to preach a message to make people ready to receive Jesus. John was a certain kind of a man. He was a different kind of a man and he led a different kind of a life. This is what we see in verse 4 of our text here in Matthew. Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist.

To us we just think that's a weird way to dress. But to Jews, this is a prophet's garb. This is what prophets wear. And In fact, in the book of Zechariah, there's a passage in chapter 13 which talks about a time when the prophets won't even admit to being prophets. The prophets will go underground.

They'll be ashamed of the Word of God that they are given to them and they don't want a prophecy. And in fact one of the verses says the prophets will say, no I'm not a prophet, I'm a farmer. I've always been a farmer. And so the prophets are in denial about what they are. And here's Zechariah chapter 13 verse 4 it says, And it shall be in that day that every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies.

They will not wear a robe of coarse hair to deceive. In other words, they won't wear a prophet's garb because they don't want to be identified as a prophet. And so when John shows up in the wilderness and he's in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, The Jews know what to make of this. The Jews know that this is significant. This isn't just a fashion choice, but that something is being communicated through clothing.

In fact, in 2 Kings, there's a description of Elijah and it sounds almost just like this. And so John is wearing a prophet's garb. Is he Elijah? Well, you'll have to wait until Matthew 11. But the short answer to that question is sort of.

And We'll cover it in detail in Matthew 11, but he sure looks like Elijah as you read the descriptions. Also, we read in verse 4, and his food was locusts and wild honey. What a diet. Locusts and wild honey. Locusts are in that region, big grasshoppers.

That's what we would describe them as, large grasshoppers. And this really is a land flowing with milk and honey. There's lots of wild honey in this region. It's really easy to access. John was accessing it and it was figured in prominently to his diet.

This isn't that unusual. For people without means in that region, this is what they eat. They eat big grasshoppers and there's an abundance of wild honey so they eat that too. The point is that John is leading a very austere life. He's depriving himself of many comforts.

He's not spending his time on clothing and cuisine. He is spending his time on God. He is an undivided man. He is a devoted man. Here's what we'll read of him as we get further into Matthew.

Matthew 9, 14 says, Then the disciples of John came to him saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast? And so, John as he enters his public ministry is taking on disciples and he has them on a routine. He has them on a regimen. And it is discipline. It's also an austere life.

They're probably eating the same things. And they're fasting often. Maybe you fast often when your diet is locusts and wild honey. But they're fasting often. And then when we get to Matthew 11, we'll see this in verse 18 and 19.

Jesus says this, For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, look, a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. But wisdom is justified by her children." And it's so helpful that we've been given this because if Jesus hadn't sent that, maybe we would think that the only kind of holy life is to go out into the desert and eat things that are really unpalatable and wear really scratchy clothes and this will be holiness. And actually people through history have done that. But Jesus came doing exactly the opposite things, and there was no man who was ever holier than Jesus.

And so Is it holy to do that? And the answer is sometimes it is. If God puts this life before you, that you would be set aside to this life than it is, but It is not necessarily the holy life. And then in Luke 1, verse 15, Gabriel is going to say, we'll actually look at this in greater detail in a minute, but one of the things Gabriel is going to say is, He shall drink neither wine nor strong drink." So this is part of John's austere life. He shall drink neither wine nor strong drink.

Here's what John MacArthur says, and I think it's very insightful and is very important MacArthur says this was a key element of the Nazarite Vowel So abstaining from anything that had to do with the fruit of the vine was part of the Nazarite Vowel And we get this from numbers number six This was a key element of the Nazarite vow from number 6 and would probably have been understood as such by Zacharias. Usually such a vow was temporary, but Samson and Samuel were subject to it from birth. And so we have this precedent, this Old Testament precedent of two men, Samson and Samuel, who were set aside by God from the time they were born. And they were Nazarites. They were never to cut their hair.

They were never to partake in anything to do with the fruit of the vine. Probably John the Baptist was too. At least this is an indication that he might have been. But the whole point of the Nazarite vow, whether he was or whether he wasn't, is somewhat immaterial. The whole point of the Nazarite vow was that you were separated to God.

You were God's. You were undivided. You were completely devoted to God. And John was definitely this. So if it wasn't a Nazarite, at least the life he had been given by God was in the vein of a Nazarite, which was he was separated to God.

So this is John the Baptist. He's the fulfillment of Isaiah 42. He's the fulfillment of Isaiah 52. He's the fulfillment of Malachi 3. He's the fulfillment of Malachi 4.

He's the product of a miraculous pregnancy that is announced by an angel. Jesus was too. He leads an austere life. He is depriving him of many things that are lawful for us, but were not profitable for him. So God separated him from those things so that he could be a single undivided man focused on the things that God had given him to do in this life.

That was John the Baptist. Number 2. What was John's mission? Well, we've already sort of seen it already in Isaiah 40 verse 3, haven't we? The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight." So we've seen two things in these prophecies, right?

We've seen Isaiah 40 and we've seen Malachi 3. And if you're not careful you'll say they say exactly the same thing. Sort of. They say things that are similar, but they aren't saying exactly the same thing. Isaiah 43 says, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

So in Isaiah 40 what's being said is that John is the mouthpiece commanding people to make themselves ready for Jesus Christ. And then in Malachi 3 it says, Behold I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you." So in one sense, John is preparing the way for Jesus. In another sense, he is the mouthpiece to declare that we should make ready the way for Jesus. So in a sense, he is doing it himself and in a sense his job is to exhort us to make ready a way for the Lord. And when we get to talk about his message this will make complete sense.

He is a preacher of repentance. And A preacher of repentance can just preach that we ought to repent. A preacher of repentance can never repent on our behalf. He can never repent for us. And so he is preparing the way for the Lord, but really the way he does that is he cries out that we would prepare the way of the Lord.

And so his message is one of exhortation and calling us that we would make ready the way of the Lord. That we would straighten out those crooked paths. We would take those low spots and fill them in and take those high spots and knock them down so we would be ready for Jesus Christ. Alright, Do you still have a finger in Luke 1? So let's go there.

Luke 1. Luke 1 talks actually a lot about his mission. It's very helpful. So Luke 1, we're going to start with what Gabriel the angel says to Zechariah, starting in verse 14. Luke 1, 14-17.

And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at His birth. For He will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God." So now here we are getting to the meat of what the mission of John the Baptist was. Verse 16.

And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedience to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." So this will be his job. To make ready a people prepared for the Lord. To deal with these obstacles that the natural man has before him that will always cause him to reject Jesus Christ and make them ready. And actually, Gabriel here is quoting Malachi 4.

He's quoting the last words of the Old Testament. And after those words, there have been over 400 years where nothing had been written. So the books of the Old Testament ceased and there was a period of 400 years and now John comes onto the scene. In short, John has a turning ministry. He points us away from our own ways which are wicked ways, and from our own thoughts which are wicked thoughts, and he points to Jesus Christ who can save, who can redeem from wicked ways and wicked thoughts.

And This is completely consistent with what we see in His preaching. The first words out of His mouth will be, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. He has a turning ministry. Now let's continue in Luke 1, but we're going to pick it up in verse 76. In verse 76, John's father, Zacharias, has been given a prophetic utterance about John.

In verse 68, he's actually given a prophetic utterance about Jesus, but in 76 it shifts to John, his son. So Luke 1 verse 76. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the highest. For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God with which the day spring from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." So the child grew and became strong in spirit and was in the desert till the day of his manifestation to Israel." So here we are given a picture. Much is said that is very similar to what we have seen so far that he will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way.

Here we are also given a picture of ourselves. And it's not a very flattering picture. It says, to those who sit in darkness in the shadow of death. So here we sit in darkness, unable to help ourselves, under the shadow of death, under the reign of death. And John comes to point to something else, a way out of this, sitting in darkness under the shadow of death.

So from this text we see that John is the prophet of the highest. That he goes before this king to prepare his way. That he gives knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins. That He gives light to those who are in darkness, that He guides our feet into the way of peace. This is what John did.

This was the mission and ministry of John the Baptist. Now let's talk about how he did it. Now we know what he's supposed to do. And we'll talk about how he did it. Because God put two instruments in his hands.

God put two weapons in the hands of this warrior for the accomplishment of his mission. And they were preaching and baptism. Preaching and baptism. It's hard to find a time when God has not used preaching. This is what God does.

He puts His own words into a mouth of a man so that people would know what the truth is. Because there's all these things rumbling around in their hearts that we fancy are true, we think are true, we concoct, we raise up and yet they're not true at all. And God sends preachers to contradict all those things that rise up in our hearts that are not true. God sends preachers to tell us the truth when there are all these things that need to be contradicted in our hearts. How gracious God is Knowing how prone we are to deceive ourselves and tell ourselves all sorts of happy thoughts that aren't true at all and that will lead us to our own destruction.

To put his own words into the mouth of a man to come and contradict us at every turn. So that we won't just be left there sitting in darkness, but that we'll have light to walk by. And so this isn't a ministry that's particular to John the Baptist, this is a ministry that is particular to many men in every generation because this is what God does. He puts His words into the mouths of men so that they'll stand before people and say, this is what the Lord says and it's true. You have all sorts of things within you that contradict it, but you're wrong and God is right.

And then with the ministry of preaching, always has to be the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Because we do sit in darkness, and it's not enough. We don't have the resources within us to even embrace the truth. And So the Spirit comes and He either gives ears to hear or He doesn't. He either gives eyes to see or He doesn't.

What we see with John the Baptist is not only does he send a preacher with the words of truth on his lips, but he also sends the ministry of the Holy Spirit to convict the inner man, to witness within them that John really is speaking the truth. Verses 5 and 6 of Matthew 3. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. There are times when you have brilliant preaching and no one will show up to hear, but this was not one of those times. This is a time when the Spirit of God appears to be giving ears to hear and eyes to see.

And people are coming out. They're going away from the city, their normal lives, and they're going out to this wild man wearing camel's hair and eating locusts. And they're listening to his preaching and they're actually heeding his preaching and they're repenting and they're being baptized. John 5.35 says this, John was the burning and shining lamp and you are willing for a time to rejoice in His light. And this is what's happening.

The multitudes are going out to them. The people are willing for a time to rejoice in the light that has been given in the form of John the Baptist. So he's preaching. Second, he's given the instrument, he's given the weapon of baptism. So not only is John going to come and contradict you and tell you that you need a change of mind but he's going to actually call for a response.

He's going to ask you to do something as a result of the truths that he is imparting. He's going to call for a response and he's going to put a line in the sand that you will either cross or you will not cross. You will either come down into the waters and be baptized as a symbol of something else, or you'll decide to sit it out and think on it and take it up another day. And so John draws this line in the sand. So there will be a marker in time.

And you won't think back to when you went out and you heard the preaching of John the Baptist and you were thinking, did I repent then? Did I not repent then? You'll know whether you went down into those waters or whether you did not. And the tool that this is, the weapon that this is, is a symbol. It's not magic, it's not effective in itself, but it's an outward sign of what ought to be happening inwardly.

It's not the substance. And actually when we get into talking about what the message of John the Baptist is, he's going to take up this theme and say, I'm baptizing with water, but that is not sufficient. It's not sufficient that you just take up the symbol and say yes I was there and I did that but that with the outward symbol you have the inward substance. So number one, who was John the Baptist? Number two, what was his mission?

And number three, what was John's message? As I said in the beginning, seven out of The twelve verses are in quotation marks. So the thrust of this passage is the message of John the Baptist. And the thrust of his message we get right out of the shoot in verse 2. Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

This is the core of why Jesus came. This is a frontal assault on the obstacles that stand between us and the Lord Jesus Christ. When We think of crooked ways that need to be made straight. We think of low places that need to be raised up. We think of high places that need to be cast down to make us ready.

At the core of that, at the heart of that is repentance. What is repentance? I think Proverbs 28.13 is as good a description of repentance as anything I've ever seen. I would just want to recommend that fathers get their kids wrapped around Proverbs 28.13. Just write that down as a reference.

It's such an easy verse to memorize but it will keep, if your children will apprehend this, it will keep them from thinking wrongly about repentance, which is so key because repentance is not confession. Confession is a part of repentance but confession and repentance aren't exactly the same thing. Proverbs 28.13 will keep us away from errors like that. Proverbs 28.13, He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. So the word repentance is not even in that proverb at all.

But the ingredients are there. That instead of a covering up of sins, of being in denial or being oblivious to our sins, that we're aware of them. We're not covering up our sins, but we confess them, we own them, we admit to them, we declare ourselves guilty of them, and then we forsake them. So we're not just sorry that we got caught, or sorry that our consciences are bothering us, but that we're not covering them up, we're taking ownership, we're declaring ourselves guilty, and we're forsaking them. This is what repentance is.

And this isn't just John's message, this is God's message. When has repentance not been at the core of preaching? We see it's John's message, then we're going to get to Matthew 4. And Jesus is going to start his public ministry. These are going to be the first words that are out of Jesus' mouth.

Matthew 4, 17. From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. So John has been given this message but it's not a special message for John. It's what will be on Jesus' lips when he starts his public preaching ministry. John says repent, Jesus says repent.

When we get to the book of Acts, we will come to the day of Pentecost when the New Testament church is born. Peter is preaching. What is Peter preaching? Acts 2.38, then Peter said to them, Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." So John's ministry was built on repentance. Jesus' ministry was built on repentance.

The early church and Peter's preaching was built on repentance. And then we'll get further into Acts. Paul, what was Paul's message? Well, in Acts 20, Paul is summarizing his ministry to the Ephesian elders. And he says in Acts 20, 20, and 21, how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

So Paul had a really consistent and limited message. And he preached all sorts of things, but when you asked him to summarize, Paul, what was all this about? He said, I taught you publicly and house to house. Jews, Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. So John's preaching is based on repentance and Jesus' preaching is based on repentance and Peter's preaching is based on repentance and Paul's preaching is based on repentance.

And let's go backwards. Noah's preaching was based on repentance. And Lot's preaching was based on repentance. This is not the message of John the Baptist. This is the message of God to us that we need a change of mind that leads to a change in life.

That there are things in us that must be contradicted and confronted and owned and forsaken. It's the message of the cross. Repentance is the message of the cross. That there is the wrath of God towards sin. And we should turn back.

That the wrath of God needs to be turned aside, and that there is wrath for sin, and so we should turn back. We should turn to God. And then the reason for repentance is given. Repent what? Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

That's the reason that John gives for repentance. And then one chapter later that will be the same reason that Jesus gives for repentance. That the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And what we find is that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And what we find is that the Kingdom of Heaven is simply about a king and his subjects.

That The kingdom has a king, it's Jesus. And the king will either be your best friend or your worst enemy. And so, this fact that Jesus Christ is king, remember in chapter 2, the wise men came and they say, who is this who has been born king of the Jews? He's already king. He's baby, but he's already king.

And so this is our reason for repentance, that there is a king and he is either the best friend, either the kindness of the Lord will lead you to repentance, or he is your worst enemy. You can pick your reasons, but they're all wrapped up in the kingship of Jesus Christ. That He is a mighty King and a faithful King to His friends, but a terrible enemy who visits His wrath on His enemies. So the Kingdom of Heaven. Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

What in the world is the Kingdom of Heaven? First of all, let's just talk about how important it is. The Kingdom of Heaven is a phrase that appears 31 times in the Bible. Every single one of them is in the book of Matthew. It is a phrase that is used by Matthew and only by Matthew.

And he uses it a lot. He uses it more than once a chapter on average. 28 chapters of Matthew he uses it 31 times. So it's really consistent. We'll be back here talking about the Kingdom of Heaven one time in chapter 4 and four times in chapter 5.

So we're going to be all about the Kingdom of Heaven in the coming weeks. So we ought to understand it. There's lots of debate on what the Kingdom of Heaven is and I'm not sure that I've mastered it this week, but I'm closer. I want to share some of the things that I've learned this week with you that are very important. Turn to Matthew 19.

The point of me taking us to Matthew 19 is not to give an exposition of what we're seeing in Matthew 19, But to look at how Matthew uses the Kingdom of Heaven, because it answers an important question. Kingdom of Heaven only used in Matthew. Kingdom of God used a ton in the New Testament, included by Matthew very sparingly, but used a lot by Mark, Luke, John, Book of Acts, Book of 1 Corinthians, Kingdom of God is the term used everywhere. So the question is, are these the same kingdoms? Are these different kingdoms?

How many nuances do we have here? So I want to take us to answer that question to Matthew 19 beginning in verse 23. Look at how Matthew uses the phrase, Kingdom of Heaven and kingdom of God. Then Jesus said to his disciples, Assuredly I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." When his disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished saying, who then can be saved?

So here, Matthew, our author, uses these words absolutely positively interchangeably. He says the first part and relates it to the Kingdom of Heaven. He starts the second part by saying, And again I say to you, and then he relates it to the Kingdom of God. He is using these as interchangeable terms. When we look at the other Gospel writers, in many places where Matthew has said, Kingdom of Heaven, Kingdom of Heaven, in things that Jesus has said, Mark will use Kingdom of God, or Luke will use kingdom of God.

Now same exact part of the narrative of Jesus' life, but Matthew uses kingdom of heaven and Mark uses kingdom of God or John does or Luke does. And so the gospel writers are using these terms interchangeably. You say, well why does this make such a big difference? Well There are frameworks of theology that require a difference between the two. I'm just telling you that when you run into that, the Bible doesn't support the distinction.

What the Bible teaches is that the Kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God is the kingdom of heaven and the gospel writers use them interchangeably. So you're going to hit this at some point in your life and somebody is going to start talking about the very important nuances between the two And I want you to know that the New Testament just doesn't support it. So why? Why is Matthew using the term kingdom of heaven? Why is he using a different term that nobody else uses?

Well, Matthew is writing to Jews. And there are Jews that are waiting around for something very specific. And that is a glorious earthly kingdom. And They just can't wait for it to get here. And Matthew is trying to say 31 times over, it's not that kind of kingdom.

It's a heavenly kingdom. It's not the earthly kingdom that you're waiting for, but It's the Kingdom of Heaven. In Luke 17, verses 20 and 21, I'll just read it to you. Now when he was asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, See here or see there, for indeed the kingdom of God is within you." So this is what Matthew is trying to get at. You're looking for something that you think, when it comes upon you, you'll know, and everybody will just recognize, oh, here's the Kingdom of Heaven, and now we have a new king, and we don't have to report to Caesar anymore because the Kingdom of Heaven is here.

And Matthew is saying what Jesus is saying here in Luke, that you're thinking about it all wrong. It's not like that. It's a different kind of kingdom. Not an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly kingdom. And it happens inside his subjects.

It happens inside his subjects, not outside. It's not what you were looking for. The Jews were waiting for the Messiah, and they had designated the Messiah the coming one. It's a phrase that is used a number of times in the New Testament. Actually, always by John the Baptist.

The Messiah is the coming one. And what John is saying when he says the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand is that He's the here one now. He has been the coming one all this time. You've been looking forward to Him, but now He's not the coming one. He's the here one.

In two weeks when we pick up the actual baptism of Jesus, here He'll be. And John will say, here comes the Lamb of God. He takes away the sins of the world. So John is making a pronouncement when he says that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. That the waiting period is over.

He's not the coming one anymore. The King is here. So there's a king and there are his subjects, those who like the wise men come and bow down at his feet to worship him. And then there are fakers who will be thrown out of the kingdom. And that's who the players are in this drama that's unfolding.

And that's what the kingdom of heaven is about. It's about the king. And it's about his subjects. And it's about the fakers who will be thrown out of his kingdom. And this is a reason to repent.

Because the king knows who his real subjects are. And as we get further into Matthew and we start taking up these parables about the Kingdom of Heaven. We are going to see that in abundance. That the King knows how to pick out the fakers. And so you can come and participate in the outward symbols all you want to, but just know this, the king knows who the fakers are.

The king knows those who aren't really repenting but are happy to go down into the water. Verse 7. So the core of his message is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then verse 7 we see that his message is a confrontation of hypocrisy. Verse 7, But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said, brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.

Not just vipers, not just your snakes, but you brood of vipers, You offspring of snakes. So it's twice as bad. You're baby snakes. You're this brood of vipers. You're the offspring.

And even The whole system that has given birth to you is rotten to the core. You're not just a viper, you're the son of a viper. Jesus will actually say that your father is the devil. That's what the meaning of this is that they're the Pharisees they had their little system that had given birth to this you have the Sadducees they got their own little system and Jesus is saying What your offsprings of these things are just of the devil. Your father is the devil is what is really being said here.

And Jesus will actually come right out and say it like that. But John is saying it this way. And Here's something really interesting. When Luke relates this, so Matthew relates it, he says, many of the Pharisees come out, many of the Sadducees come out, and John sees them coming, and John is ready to deal with the hypocrites. Luke says the same words, but doesn't say anything about Pharisees, doesn't say anything about Sadducees, which is very depressing, isn't it?

I mean, don't we just love to ride a Pharisee or a Sadducee about those hypocrites. But Luke leaves all that out. Here's what Luke says in Luke 3.7. Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, Brood of vipers, who warns you to flee from the wrath to come." And so We can be all happy about John jumping on the hypocrites of the time all we want to be, but just recognize that Luke just leaves that out of the equation and says this was for the multitudes. And This isn't a surprise at all.

When we look at 1 Timothy 5, which is about elders who sin and how you treat elders who are caught in sin, says this. 1 Timothy 5, 19-20, Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest may fear also." And this has always been true. When a leader sins and is caught in sins, you rebuke him in front of everybody. This is exactly what John does.

He sees the leaders coming out. He knows they're filled with hypocrisy. So he rebukes them in the presence of all. Why? Is it for their shame?

No, it is that the rest also may fear. When you have a leader who has hypocrisy in his heart and you rebuke him in the presence of all, it's because there are All those other people out there who also have hypocrisy hidden up in their hearts. And it addresses the hypocrisy. When the leaders are rebuked, the rest may fear as well. So was John's rebuke for the Pharisees and the Sadducees or was it for the multitudes?

The answer is yes. It was for the Pharisees and the Sadducees and it was also for the multitudes. That's why you rebuke leaders publicly, so that the rest also may fear. Calvin says this, To comprehend more fully his design, we must understand that none are more stupid than hypocrites, who deceive themselves and others by the outward mask of holiness. While God thunders on all sides against the whole world, they construct a refuge for themselves in their own deceitful fancy.

For they are convinced that they have nothing to do with the judgment of God. And this is exactly what's happening. Here these Sadducees and Pharisees are coming down. Are they really coming to repent? No.

They have constructed a framework that exempts them from the whole discussion. And they have, as Calvin says, the outward mask of holiness. They have the outward things in place that makes them think they are exempt from the things that John's saying. So they're just out to enjoy the show. There are significant things happening out by the Jordan and they want to see what's going on, so here they come.

And rather than hearing the things that John is saying as for themselves, they have this outward mask of holiness that they think exempts them from the whole discussion. And They're just there as a result of their curiosity. And the things that John is saying, even though he's laboring and he's working with them, is going right over their head. And so what are you doing in an instance like that? You do what John does.

You call them sons of the devil and get straight at it and try to break through this outward mask of holiness that has been constructed so that they might even be able to hear the things that are being said. And instead of exempting themselves from the call to repentance that they would actually hear it and say, no, maybe this isn't just for the great unwashed that have come out. Maybe this is for Sadducees and Pharisees. And maybe I have just cleaned the outside of the cup, but the inside is filled with all amount of filthiness. In verse 8, We're given the antidote for faker repentance.

So that's what John is addressing, isn't it? He's addressing faker repentance. And verse 8 gives us the antidote. It's real repentance. That seems very intuitive, doesn't it?

The solution for faker repentance is real repentance. And real repentance is bearing the fruits worthy of it. In other words, having a demonstration that something real has happened. Not just outward, not just from the lips only, then never to be heard from again, but real, substantive, fruit bearing. There's actually a root there that is capable of producing something in the upper branches.

Turn to 2nd Corinthians. Turn to 2nd Corinthians. 2nd Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7, starting in verse 9. So Paul is actually going to talk about real repentance.

2 Corinthians 7, 9. Now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted. The sorrow of the world produces death.

For observe this very thing that you have sorrowed in a godly manner. What diligence it produced in you. What clearing of yourselves. What indignation. What fear.

What vehement desire. What zeal. What vindication. In all these things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. So Paul talks about the Corinthians and he identifies what they did as not just sorrow, but the sorrow leading to somewhere, repentance, and the repentance leading to somewhere, to salvation, and they are actually being fruit.

He says, what diligence it produced in you. And this is what we ought to use as a measuring stick for our own repentance. When we have repented can it be said what diligence it produced in you? It did in the Corinthians. They weren't just sorry.

They actually repented. They changed their minds and it resulted in a change of life. And then in verse 9, so back to our text for the day, in verse 9, and do not think to yourselves we have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these very stones. So as every good preacher does, he anticipates the objections.

We see Paul doing that all the time in Romans. What shall we say then? And then He'll give the question and He knows all of His hearers are thinking and He'll answer the questions preemptively. And this is exactly what John the Baptist is doing. He knows they're going to say in their hearts, we have Abraham as our Father.

We are the people of the covenant. We are the chosen people of God. And what John is trying to express to them is though God has many children, He has no grandchildren. And I just want to look in the eyeballs of the children in the room and make sure that you understand though God has many children, He has no grandchildren. In other words, He adopts children but he doesn't adopt grandchildren.

You must be right before him. You must repent. Your father cannot repent for you. Your father cannot believe for you. You must do it.

And so there is a great danger that while you're in these houses with a form of godliness that there would be no power. That you would be found like the Pharisees and the Sadducees having cleaned the outside of the cup, having an outward mask of holiness that you've learned to trust in. And you would think that you could be God's grandchild. No, you must be His child. You must be adopted by Him.

You must deal directly with Him. It will not do to go to God for your Father. He is not able to do that for you. And Paul solves this for us in Galatians 3. Two verses in particular.

Galatians 3 verse 7, Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. This is what the Pharisees and Sadducees missed. That only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. This is what the Pharisees and Sadducees missed, that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. That it wasn't just magic in the blood that could be transferred from father to son, but that it was children of faith.

Galatians 3.29, And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed. God is able to raise up seed for Abraham from rocks. Are you one of those rocks? As I was thinking about the passage this week, I was thinking, I'm one of those rocks. Not a natural descendant.

And hard as a rock on the day when God claimed me, and yet God has raised me up to be a seed of Abraham. Praise the Lord. This is one of these things that we ought to just see and be glad of. That God is able to raise up from rocks children for Abraham. And it speaks to the power of God to take things that aren't and make them as if they were.

To speak things into existence and to take his enemies and make them his children. Not even just making them his servants, but making them his children. He can raise up rocks and make them children of Abraham. I'm one of those rocks. Calvin says this, the covenant which God made with Abraham was employed by them as a shield to defend bad conscience.

So they're holding up the covenant as a shield to defend bad conscience. Not knowing that the covenant has nothing to do with those who don't have faith. The covenant is only for those who believe God and it's counted to them as righteousness. Alright, verse 10. And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.

Therefore Every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. John has already dealt with faker repentance and he said bear fruit worthy of repentance. And now He turns to the other side and says, what happens if you will not bear fruit? And it's that the axe is laid to the root of the tree. And every tree that doesn't bear fruit will be cut down and will be thrown to the fire.

Verses 11 and 12. In 11 and 12 everything up to this point has been about the problem. The problem is that we don't think right. The problem is that we don't act right. The problem is that we are a race in rebellion to God.

But now John begins to do his real purpose, which is to point to Jesus Christ. Verses 11 and 12. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. John starts talking about Jesus and he starts with a comparison himself to Jesus. And he wants you to know what the gulf is like. And he said, now this is the man who's been living out in the desert so that he could be separate to God. No strong drink, no wine, because I'm separate to God.

I'm going to deprive myself of all manner of things so that I can be separated. And He says of Himself, I'm not even worthy to carry His shoes. So John is continuing to do things that will hopefully jar us awake. Like, he's calling us a brood of vipers. He's saying that we're sons of the devil, which all the unregenerate are sons of the devil.

And he's trying to, he's got us by the collar. And John is just shaking as hard as he knows how so that we'll wake up. And instead of thinking nicely about ourselves, we'll begin to think, I'm the son of the devil. Instead of thinking that we're the people of God, this doesn't apply to us, that we're not worthy even to carry His sandals. What are we to John the Baptist?

What is the gulf just between me and John the Baptist? And John says, who I will never attain to John, and you will never attain to the godliness, to the separateness of John the Baptist. John says, I don't even deserve to carry his sandal. And he's trying to get us to see the gulf between a holy God and the seed of the devil. And that we must be born again.

And John says, I have this symbol, I immerse you in water, but Jesus is the substance. Jesus actually will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. There will be this not an outward cleansing where we're washing off of water, but there must be an inward cleansing. And as much greater as He is, I wouldn't even be worthy to carry His sandal. So much more so is His baptism than my baptism.

I have this puny little water baptism to offer you. But Jesus Christ can cleanse in the inner man. He can dip you. He can immerse you in the Holy Spirit. And He can bring His fire, which is like the coal from the altar in Isaiah 6 when Isaiah knew that he was an unclean man, living among an unclean people, that the angel would come and bring the cleansing fire of God to make him acceptable, to make him stand in the presence of the Lord.

This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire that we would be immersed by the work of the Holy Spirit and we'd be cleansed. We'd be set free from our sins. Repentance is good as far as it goes, but it's not good enough. It doesn't undo. It improves going forward.

It's not enough for us to improve going forward. To make New Year's resolutions and follow through on them or not follow through on them. We need to be immersed in the work of the Holy Spirit. We need the fire of God to cleanse us from those things. Not just to do better going forward, but to be declared innocent looking backward.

And this is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Turn to 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12 verses 12 and 13. For as the body is one, it has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free.

And all had been made to drink into the one Spirit. There is only one body. There is a king of this kingdom. And in a great mystery, he makes a one body through the working of his spirit. And there's a baptism of this spirit that joins members into this body.

This is what John is speaking of. And the finished work of Jesus is the basis for this. That's why John talks about it in future tense, even though Jesus himself will be baptizing in no time. That wasn't the point at which the baptism of the Holy Spirit started. In Acts 1-5 we see some of Jesus' last words.

This is post-resurrection Jesus says, for John truly baptized with water, But you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." So Jesus was on earth. He was baptizing like John was baptizing, but that wasn't the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of The Holy Spirit was after the work of Christ had been accomplished. After He had died upon the cross for our sins. After He had been raised to new life and been given all authority on heaven and earth as King of everything.

That is when He sent the Holy Spirit And He began to join together a body, one by one by one, by cleansing with the Holy Spirit. All based on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and His good pleasure to send the Holy Spirit so that we could live in power with a power that nobody prior to that time had. And this is the dividing line between those who will be subjects of the kingdom and those who are just fakers who will be thrown out. Are they baptized by the Holy Spirit? Has the fire of God come to cleanse them in the inner man.

Something that our repentance can never accomplish. So while John's baptism is incredibly important, and preachers should always stand up and say repent, The truth of the matter is the thing that defines, the thing that divides is the work of God, not your repentance. Has God immersed you? Has the Holy Spirit come upon you? Has the cleansing fire of God been unleashed so that you can be declared innocent through the finished work of Jesus Christ?

There are four applications. We're already way over time, so I'll be brief. There are four applications. Number one, how is your repentance life? We ask this in all sorts of categories.

How's your love life? How's your thought life? So I'm asking, how is your repentance life? Repentance isn't just the ministry of John the Baptist. He prepared the way for Jesus then.

They cut off his head and we don't have to worry about that anymore. No. God's people are repenting people. We were studying in chapter 16 of our confession, the Baptist Confession of 1689. In chapter 16 it talks about repenting of your particular sins particularly.

And the writers of the Confession are just bearing down on us to deal with our sins. Not just, Oh God, I know I'm so sinful, please forgive me. But dealing with our sins, our particular sins particularly, so that we're not careless about them, as if we have an outward mask, That's starting to sound like what Calvin was drilling down in on. How is your repentance life? Do you have a soft and tender heart before God?

And are you dealing with your particular sins particularly? Number two, what is your status with the King? What is your status with the king? What is your status with the king? There is a great and mighty king.

He's the best friend. He's the worst enemy. There are only the king, which you are not, the subjects, and the fakers who will be thrown out of the kingdom. What is your status with the king? This is the ultimate question.

And it's not just a question for the unregenerate to wrestle with, although they ought to wrestle with it. But also for the subjects of the Kingdom who had been baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire. All subjects are not equal. Are you a humble subject? Are you a happy subject?

Or are you always grumbling under the hand of your King? What kind of subject are you? The subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven ought to be the happiest people, most confident, most unflappable people ever. Jesus is their King. Number three, have you trained yourself to recognize that voice?

The one that says, we're the children of Abraham. The one that justifies every wrong and figures out a way why your sins just aren't that bad and they're the result of somebody else anyway. There's a voice in every head that tries to talk us out of just really repenting, really turning from our sins. It always tells us that we're not that bad and that we're better than the person sitting to our right or to our left. Have you trained yourself to recognize that voice so that you can Make it be quiet and deal with truth in the inner man when God speaks.

We need to learn to recognize that voice. We need to teach our children to recognize that voice. There's always an internal voice that is letting us off the hook when we ought to feel the weight of our sins so that we'll deal with them. And number four, how aware are you of the great gulf? The mighty chasm between a holy God and us so that when the Son of God walks the earth that a righteous man more righteous than we'll ever be is not worthy to carry his foot, his shoe, his dusty, sweaty shoe.

You're not even worthy to carry it. When we're aware of that chasm, we are humble subjects, and we are happy subjects. And we are not lifted up and we are not overly prone to hold the sins of others against them while we justify ourselves. Understanding the chasm between a holy God and ourselves is in many ways the key to happiness. Living as subjects in this kingdom.

Let's pray. Father, we would love in one way to come to this passage and just not recognize ourselves in it. And smile and nod and go away unchanged. And yet, God, as we think deeply about these things, We know that we are the ones who need to repent so often, need to turn and then demonstrate the fruit of having turned. And We need to be confronted as hypocrites.

And we need to be warned that there is a day when you'll separate and gather and burn. God, I pray that You would overwhelm us with the goodness of Your mercies and it would drive us to repentance. And God, I pray that You would overwhelm us with the goodness of Your mercies and it would drive us to repentance. And God, I pray that You would terrorize us with the future of the unrepentant and it would drive us to repentance. And then in all these things you would find us turning towards you, turning away from our own thoughts, turning away from our own ways, and turning towards you, trusting in You, putting all of our weight on the finished work of Jesus Christ.

We cry out to You, Lord, for Your help in all these things in Jesus' name, amen. In God's name, Amen.